Saturday, 25 January 2014

When the British wanted Lalbagh to feed their soldiers

The Lalbagh in Bangalore has always been
rated as one of the finest botanical gardens of the world. It is not only the
pride of Bangalore
but it is a rare repository of exotic
plants and trees, many of which go back to the time of Hyder Ali and Tipu
Sultan.

The credit for the making of
Lalbagh goes to both Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan. They started planting the
gardens sometime between 1740 and 1760 and they both took keen interest in
raising the garden.

Both Hyder and Tipu imported exotic
plants, seeds and saplings from countries as far away as Turkey,
Persia, Afganisthan and the
continent of Africa. They also set up a
separate garden department to deal with Lalbagh and other gardens.

The death of Tipu in 1799 did not put the brakes on the
development of Lalbagh. Instead, the British took keen interest in redeveloping
and subsequently expanding the Lalbagh. They wanted the Lalbagh to cater to the
culinary tastes of the British troops stationed in Srirangapatna.

The troops of the East India Company were not accustomed to
eating native fruits and vegetables and they longed for “good old English” vegetables
and fruits. Bangalore
was found to be ideal for growing some of the English vegetables and fruits.

The East India Company took
over Lalbagh and the then Governor
General, Richard Wellesley, commanded surgeon- naturalist Dr. Benjamin
Heyne, to look up Lalbagh.

Heyne was also tasked with
the job of ensuring that the Lalbagh provided food for the regimental messes of the
British troops. He was also encouraged to demonstrated to the native gardeners
and growers how English vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage and turnips could
be cultivated in Bangalore.

Heyne sent a letter to Fort
St George, dated April 27, 1803, proposing the retention of a small spot of
ground in Bangalore
for the purpose of cultivating the potato, turnip and other culinary
vegetables.

Lalbagh, under Heyne, came to
be transformed into a European style garden and it was only from this period it
also began to serve as a botanical garden.

Heyne, who was the first
British keeper of Lalbagh, brought 369 plant species from the Western Ghats in South India to Lalbagh. Since Wellesley
had asked Heyne to introduce crops, including fruits and vegetables palatable
to the British, the botanist did his best to redevelop Lalbagh and grow alien
crops in India.

This experiment of Heyne
started in 1800 and continued till 1807. He introduced Apples, cocoa, durian,
clove, nutmeg and mangosteen and the fist saplings of all these were planted in
the Lalbagh.

When the experiments in
Lalbagh succeeded, Heyne prevailed upon growers in and round Bangalore to grow European and British vegetables.

Heyne was in Lalbagh
till 1812 after which he joined Francis Buchanan in his survey work. Though he
could not transform Lalbagh into a garden to serve the British belly, he
protected it and preserved its plants and trees.